"Whisky-Jack, likely," snapped Carcajou, malignantly.
"Not I," declared Jay--"I swear it! I keep the Law. What evil I've got to say of any one, I say to his face; I'm no traitor. You're a thief, Carcajou--your ears were cut off for stealing! Your head's as smooth as a Bird's egg, and you're a quarrelsome Blackguard--but did I ever accuse you of betraying our Comrades?"
"Never mind, Sweet Singer," answered Wolverine, apologetically, "I didn't mean it. Nobody told François; it was your own big feet, Muskwa. If you weren't half asleep you'd know that you left a trail like the passing of Train Dogs."
"How shall we spring the Trap?" asked Bear.
"Don't touch it," commanded Carcajou. "Just leave it, and François will spend many days waiting for your thick fur."
"But if I 'hole-up' here the Man will break into my house and kill me while I sleep."
"How can he find you?" asked Jack, incredulously. "It's going to snow again, you'll be all covered up deep and he'll never know where you are."
"Won't he, Little Brother? Man is not so stupid. How do you suppose I breathe? There'll be a little hole right up through the snow, all yellow about the edges, and François will find that; also, if there's frost in the air, see my breath. No; I've got to make another nest now. I should have turned in before the snow fell, then I'd have been all right."
"We'll help you fix a new house," said Black King; "but you had better wait--perhaps this snow will go away; then there will be no tracks to lead Trappers to your nest. It is really too bad to keep you up when you are so sleepy, but it's the only way."
"And to think how I worked over it," lamented Muskwa. "For a week I carried sticks until my arms ached; and scraped up leaves, and spruce boughs, and soft moss, until my hands were sore. It would have been the finest 'hole-up' of any Bear within the Boundaries. Umisk boasts about his old Mud Lodge, with the lower floor all flooded with water--it's enough to give one rheumatism. New Ant Hills! I shouldn't like to live in a cold, cheerless place like that. If I had just pulled all that nice warm covering over me before the snow fell, I should have been as comfortable as little Gopher in his hole. It's too bad!"